Aqua Ultricies
by Tigger12403
Summary: It all started with Peter Kirkland. The stone legs of the sea fort were covered in barnacles, and they seemed to be reaching upwards and towards the rest of the bunker. Yearning to reach the threshold that the young micro-nation lived in. A a few yards above the water was darker, most likely from waves splashing up against it constantly, and it faded into a lighter grey color.
1. Chapter 1

**a/n::** Hey guys! So, this is my first time publishing on fanfiction, so there may be some things messed up with how it works. If there is, I apologize. Anyways! Thank you for bothering to look at my story, and have a nice rest of your day ^^

—

It all started with Peter Kirkland.

A cold winter day in January the young micro-nation didn't show up to the World Conference, and the only one who noticed was England. The British man brushed it off as he was sick, or perhaps he simply forgot. He was a child anyways! Why should he care. He had raised several young boys in his lifetime. Alfred, New Zealand, Peter. He knew the drill, children weren't to be held responsible for any silly grown up things.

But Peter wouldn't miss anything any of the real countries went to, he wouldn't miss the chance to prove he was like them. This thought bothered Arther for a while until he decided he would check up on the younger country, children needed someone to be there for them once and a while. All Peter had was him, and he was lucky to. All children needed a responsible adult to look after them, and he was the best at doing just that.

When Arthur arrived at the Sea Fort he walked across the deck, looking over at the ocean. The stone legs of the sea fort were covered in barnacles, and they seemed to be reaching upwards and towards the rest of the bunker. Yearning to reach the threshold that the young micro-nation lived in. A a few yards above the water was darker, most likely from waves splashing up against it constantly, and it faded into a lighter grey color. Making it to the door that led to the bunkers, which Sealand stayed in, he stood at the door for a few moments before lifting a closed fist. The blonde Englishman knocked loudly on the door, "Sealand. It's me, Arthur." No response. "Sealand?" Silence. "Sealand!" Arthur frowned before trying to open the door, but all that happened was make a small thump that indicated something was holding it in place. England sighed in exasperation, the boy knew better then to keep him wait-

Suddenly the door flung open, nearly missing his face. "Sealand! What in the bloody name of-" Peter Kirkland stared defiantly up at England, his small frame thinner then it normally was, but not necessarily noticeably. England's brother sniffed, his bright blue eyes glinting with annoyance.

"I'm sorry but you can't stay. I have bigger things to worry about." Peter said lightly, before shutting the door on the other. England simply stood there, taken aback by the brutal honesty his small brother had spat at him. The English nation took a couple steps back from the door, before turning on his heel with a sniff.

"Well, I wasn't worried anyways." England said tightly as he made his way across the deck, his shoes clicking on the metal platform of the sea fort.

—

Peter grunted as he fixed the locks on the heavy iron door before walking back down into the living spaces. Entering the kitchen, two woman were at work cooking and cleaning as the men either were out trying to put something up to stop the spreading or researching it. He walked through the room and peeked up at the food, and one of the woman looked down at him. "Sorry, hon. Dinner's not gonna be done for a few hours." Everyone knew everyone on the Sea Fort, so it wasn't a surprise that she knew him. Well, she didn't know he was the representation of her land, but she did know he was a young boy living with her on the Principality of Sealand.

"Oh, that's okay." He chirped, before dropping back onto his heels. Currently he was on door duty, and was supposed to be running food back and forth to the men when it was done. Him and another young girl, but currently she was sick so he had to do all the work.

Sealand was assigned to answer the door because he was the only one who seemed to know the random people that showed up at the sea fort. Well, most of the people inside knew Arthur by now as he seemed to show up the most. Despite him saying that he didn't care about Peter. He'd believe that for a second.

But, some of his friends liked to show up too! Mostly Seborga, as he seemed to be lonely and bored twenty percent of the time. Sealand wasn't sure why he didn't go talk to his brothers, Feliciano and Lovino, but he didn't mind that the ginger haired Italian came to see him. Peter had only briefly talked to the two Italian brothers before and Romano was like Wy. Worse. At least Wy was nice some of the time. But Italy was nice! He didn't really like Germany though, and he was usually around Italy. Ludwig was too much like Arthur for his liking.

He rubbed up and down his arms when he entered the next room, and noticed the windows were open and frowned. Snow was piling up on the windowsill and a cold breeze swept through the room. Clear, plastic, totes were piled up in the corner. Most of them contained seawater, that sat still in the boxes. One or two of them though were holding a series of small metal boxes inside of them, which Peter knew had the white powder inside.

The windows nor the door were supposed to be open, as they hoped it would stop the spreading a little. If it made it this far. Walking over to to the open window, he poked his head out and looked around, seeing if it was open for a reason and not just left open from somebody wanted fresh air. Seeing no one near the window, he shrugged and pulled his head back inside. Reaching up, Peter went up onto his tip-toes; he pulled the window down with a small grunt of effort, stopping the waft of cold air that was flooding into the room.

Looking around, a microscope that was sitting unattended on the table caught his eye. Walking over he glanced at it, and saw nothing laying on the platter. Shrugging slightly, he grabbed it and walked over to the cabinet where microscopes were put, swinging it back and forth in the process. Opening the wooden cabinet he set it down, before closing it again and walking out of the room. He stopped in the doorway and looked back into the room, feeling like something was off. His blue eyes narrowed slightly as his gaze swept across the room, before shrugging and turning away. Everyone was on edge, it was probably just that.

—

White barnacle looking creatures blanketed the ocean floor completely, the sandy bottom hidden beneath them all. Bubbles would occasionally rise from cracks, or some would pop and flakes of white would explode in a small puff, before scattering around the immediate area. The water seemed to move more slowly around the creatures, like sludge in a tar pit.

The closer you got to the shore, the less the barnacles that were on the floor and seemingly the more the water. If it was simply a trick of the mind, the slow water and the less water, it was an impressive one. The creatures spread in all directions, reaching towards the closest land masses. United Kingdom, Netherlands, France. They were all slowly, carefully and quietly making their way closer to the rest of the world, away from the small sea fort that Sealand claimed as his own.


	2. Chapter 2

England was still ruffled from his recent encounter with his younger brother, despite how he claimed that he had no need to worry about the other. Something always seemed to be tickling the back of his mind, something was wrong. He found himself walking along the shores of Great Britain, always stopping to gaze out towards where Peter's sea fort was. Something _was_ wrong. He just knew it. The problem was, he was too stubborn to go ask Peter about it.

Some of the other countries noticed how unsettled Arthur seemed to be in the past weeks. France had taunted him, then asked with genuine concern if he was okay because he didn't snap back at the annoying Frenchman. Alfred approached Arthur after a meeting to ask if he was alright, and when England asked why America replied with a: "Well, it's obvious dude. You didn't say my plan was stupid!" Of course, England was quick to call him a git and tell him that he was just having an off day. Some of the other countries too noticed how off the Englishman had seemed lately, just didn't approach him about it.

But, despite the sickening feeling in his chest about the Micro-Nation, he refused to let himself to go and check up of Sealand again. It would hurt his pride. And it wasn't like Sealand couldn't take care of himself for a little bit. He was perfectly capable. And he had all his Micro-Nation friends.

Then the oddities started to occur. He was being approached by several of his officials, telling him that water seems to be disappearing, and a drought is foreseen to come. Then, even stranger, he was being approached by Holland and his sister about how they too were experiencing the shortage of water, and wondering if he was too. He grudgingly admitted to the two that he was also experiencing this shortage of water.

England attempted to convince the other two that it was simply because they were experiencing a hard winter, and it wasn't a drought but merely that a lot of the water had frozen over due to the cold. It was true, that the winter had been a rough one. Temperatures had dropped to freezing in November, and they still haven't softened at their current end of January times.

But both he, Netherlands and Belgium knew that that probably wasn't the case. And the sudden bring up of the water shortage just led to Arthur worrying a little more about what exactly were the bigger things Sealand said he needed to worry about. Perhaps he had known about the coming of the drought? No, that was impossible. A silly child wouldn't be able to predict something like this. That was a ridiculous thought. Though, that small part of his mind reminded him that it was possible.

The shortage of water lasted another month, and Britain was afraid it'd start negatively impacting his economy shortly. The blonde Englishman had started putting scientists on the job to study what was causing the shortage of water, but after several weeks none of them had still found anything. He found himself picking up the phone and typing in the beginning of Peter's cell phone number, then deciding against it. If the one that actually wasn't a country could do things that may not even relate to this water drought, then he sure could too! He was an actual Nation, unlike his brother.

—

England pushed open the door to the World Conference room with one shoulder, his arms currently occupied by his book, teapot and cup. Turning, he stopped just inside and looked over the chatting countries already in the room, before making his way to his seat. The blonde country neatly set down his book, then the teapot and cup, in front of his seat. He pulled out his chair and sat down, something tickling the back of his mind. He looked around in slight confusion, something was wrong.

Of course Sealand wasn't there, but he had gotten used to that by this time. But either somebody else was missing, or somebody was just being quiet. He let his eyes brush across the room, and for some odd reason he couldn't figure out who it was. America was obviously here, as he was yelling about one thing or another to Spain and a scowling Romano. China, Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, and Taiwan had walked in shortly after him. Germany was with Italy and Prussia, although England still wasn't too sure why the old nation still came since he technically wasn't a current country.

France was… where was France? Finally he realized what was missing. He wasn't greeted by the annoying Frenchmen when he had walked in, then they hadn't gotten into a foolish argument. The Englishman looked around quizzically, before deciding to ask somebody. Canada was probably the best choice, since the quiet Canadian seemed to be the closest to Francis. Pushing himself to his feet, the green eyed Brit seemed to finally notice the man standing beside Alfred. He was quietly watching the scene unfold, with Kumajiro in his arms.

Approaching the violet eyed other, he skirted around America who didn't notice him and tapped Matthew on the shoulder. Canada looked over in surprise, and opened his mouth and obviously said something but Arthur couldn't hear him over the loud voice of his brother. He motioned with his hand, and guided the other away so that Arthur wasn't getting an earache from the noisy American.

"I'm sorry Canada, but I couldn't hear you. Now that we're away from that git maybe we can actually speak properly." England said in his sharp English accent, dropping his hand to his side after pulling it off of the others shoulder.

"Oh, sorry." Canada said. Even at this distance from Alfred and with normal chatter surrounding the two, England still had to strain his ears a little to hear the quiet voice of the soft-spoken Canadian.

"No, your fine. Even so, I wanted to ask if you knew were France was. He seems to be missing." Matthew looked around, and it looked like it was the first time he realized that the Frenchman was gone.

"Oh, no I don't. Sorry, England, but I haven't seen him." Matthew said, frowning slightly. England shook his head, "no, your fine. You just seem to be the closest to France so I figured if it was anyone to know it'd be you."

"Oh, yeah. I don't. Sorry England." He said finally, before turning and walking back over to America. He heard the bear in Canada's arms squeak something, and watched as Matthew's mouth moved in reply. He sighed softly, before turning and making his way back over to his seat. The meeting was to begin soon, anyways. And Arthur had no reason to worry over France.

But he couldn't help the feeling that everything was going wrong.


End file.
